Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Candiru (English and Portuguese) or candirú (Spanish), also known as cañero or toothpick fish, are a number of genera of parasitic freshwater catfish in the family Trichomycteridae; all are native to the Amazon River. Although lurid anecdotes of attacks on humans abound, there is only one documented case of a candiru entering a human orifice. In this instance, the victim had a candiru swim into his urethra as he urinated while thigh-deep in a river.